Wellington, Washington facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Wellington, Washington
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Wellington depot before the 1910 avalanche
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 Wellington, Washington
Location in Washington (state)
Wellington, Washington
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | Washington |
| County | King |
| Founded | 1893 |
| Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
Wellington (later called Tye) was a small town in the northwest United States. It was a railroad community located in King County, Washington.
The town was founded in 1893. It sat in the Cascade Range mountains, right at the entrance to the first Cascade Tunnel under Stevens Pass. Wellington is famous for a very sad event: the 1910 Wellington avalanche. This was the worst avalanche in U.S. history, and 96 people lost their lives.
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The Great Snowslide of 1910
The Wellington avalanche was the deadliest avalanche ever in the United States. It caused the deaths of 96 people.
A Huge Snowstorm
For nine days in late February 1910, the Wellington area had a terrible blizzard. Snow fell almost constantly. Sometimes, a foot (30 cm) of snow fell every hour! On the worst day, about 11 feet (335 cm) of snow piled up.
Two trains, one carrying passengers and another carrying mail, got stuck at the Wellington depot. They were traveling from Spokane to Seattle. Snow plows tried to clear the tracks, but the snow was too deep. Repeated avalanches kept blocking the railway lines between Scenic and Leavenworth.
The Avalanche Strikes
Late on February 28, the snow finally stopped. Then, rain and a warm wind began to blow. Just after 1 a.m. on March 1, a huge slab of snow broke loose from Windy Mountain. This happened during a thunderstorm, possibly due to a lightning strike.
The snow mass was enormous: 10 feet (3 meters) high, half a mile (800 meters) long, and a quarter of a mile (400 meters) wide. It rushed down the mountain towards the town. A recent forest fire had burned many trees on the slopes above Wellington. This meant there was little to stop the powerful avalanche.
The Impact and Aftermath
The avalanche missed the Bailets Hotel, which also held the town's general store and post office. However, it slammed into the railroad depot. Most of the passengers and crew were sleeping on their trains.
The force of the snow threw the trains about 150 feet (46 meters) downhill. They crashed into the Tye River valley. Ninety-six people died in the disaster. This included 35 passengers, 58 Great Northern railway workers on the trains, and three railway workers in the depot.
Twenty-three people survived the avalanche. Railway workers from the hotel and other buildings quickly rushed to the wreckage to pull them out. However, the rescue work had to stop because of the bad weather. It took 21 weeks, until late July, to find and remove all the bodies.
This was not the only avalanche that winter. Three days later, 63 railway workers died in the Rogers Pass avalanche in nearby British Columbia.
What Happened Next?
In October, Wellington was quietly renamed "Tye." This was done because of the sad memories linked to the old name. In the same month, the Great Northern Railway started building concrete snow sheds. These were strong shelters to protect the tracks from future avalanches.
The depot closed when a second, longer Cascade Tunnel was finished in 1929. After that, the town of Tye was abandoned. Eventually, it burned down.
Today, Wellington (or Tye) is considered a ghost town. The old railway tracks and snow sheds are still there. They have been saved as part of the Iron Goat Trail. You can visit this trail from U.S. Highway 2 near Stevens Pass or near Scenic, east of Everett.
